Green Home Checklist
Purchasing a house could sometimes get stressful and confusing, especially if you are trying to look for a green home. Obviously, these days there is a great market for green or eco-friendly homes with various styles to choose from. Below is a checklist for that dream, green home.
1. The first step for you to do is to get a good help. With today’s increasing eco-awareness and prices of energy soaring up, more people are worried about things like the indoor air quality and energy efficient homes. When screening potential realtors, be sure to find out how much they know about eco-friendly homes and other environment related issues that matter to you. If you need help in finding a green home realtor, there are several online sites such as the Modern Green Living and other green residential websites.
2. You can perform a search for a green home on your own. You can determine by looking around. Try to examine the heating and cooling systems of a home and make sure that they are suitably sized and are in good working condition. Check out if the windows are single or double paned and check the doors if you feel a draft coming around their edges. Take note on inadequate or missing insulation or signs of molds. To have better information, you can hire a professional to perform an energy audit. These professionals use tools like infrared cameras for heat loss and special fans to pressurize a home to find out if it is energy efficient. This helps to determine if your prospective home needs any expensive efficiency upgrades.
3. Choose your location thoroughly. While the countryside is more your taste, it is necessary to consider the distance in commuting, local facilities nearby and what are your means of getting around. Find a place where all your daily needs are available within a half-mile radius from your home
. You can search online through Walk Score to locate restaurants, parks, groceries and other business and amenities within walking distance from your potential home.
4. The space is another environmental factor to be considered. A smaller space means lesser energy needed to heat and light it. The less spent on utilities could mean extra money to spend on things you enjoy. With careful and thoughtful interior design, you can create a beautiful living environment from surprisingly smaller spaces.
5. You can do home improvements by your own. Try adding fresh coat of paints with low VOC to help improve the air quality. Look over pipes and paints to get a better idea of the changes you want for a greener and healthier home.
Most important of all is to ask before you buy a home. Although not every single home possess all of the ecological features listed, at least you will get a transparent picture of what the prospective home has to offer. Go ahead and look for that green home, this home is definitely healthy to the environment and beneficial to homeowners.
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Hi!
Very useful Green Home tips you’ve got there.
You may want to share them too with other green living enthusiasts and professionals over at Expert Checklist http://expertchecklists.com/. It’s a new web app for professionals working in difficult and complex environments where users can work together to create and discuss very effective checklists for their fields.
The cool thing is that you can modify the list for yourself and print it as PDF. On the web site, you can also work together with other pros to improve the list or discuss changes.
Hi Joevye! Thank you for reading our blog and for your comment. We will check out the Expert Checklist. Seems like a great idea to share ideas and move towards a greener planet.